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What a difference a uniform can make, especially one tied to law and order. In the standard slacker buddy movie formula, it can add a superficial splash of intrigue to the usual quarter-life malaise comedy. For underachieving manchild protagonists, it can change perceptions – of those around them, with strangers and acquaintances alike responding with reverence and respect; and of themselves, imbuing inspiration to do better, and affording a sense of invincibility.
That’s exactly what 30-year-old best friends Ryan (Jake Johnson, Drinking Buddies) and Justin (Damon Wayans, Jr., Big Hero 6) find when they dress up at police, confusing a masquerade ball for a costume party.The laughter that greets their arrival only confirms their down-and-out status, the former starring in a genital herpes commercial after failing to turn college football prowess into a professional career, and the latter toiling away on what he thinks might be the next big video game despite being ignored by his arrogant employer. As they stumble, despondent and dejected, along the streets of Los Angeles, they are met with a different reaction. Realising that everyone thinks that they are real cops, they decide to play along, even becoming involved in a real-life operation to apprehend a ruthless mobster (James D’Arcy, Cloud Atlas) intimidating local businesses.
In a script written by director Luke Greenfield (Something Borrowed) with co-scribe Nicholas Thomas (Canoga Park), the trajectory the central characters follow in rising from losers to successful imposters to more rounded and grounded men unafraid to take chances to follow their dreams is as routine as such storylines usually are. The addition of the law enforcement angle merely adds a raft of supposedly comedic situations for the troublesome duo to trawl through, including tricking civilians, being mistaken for strippers, attracting groupies, and playing along with actual officers. Alas, although bumbling cops can be funny, as television sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine consistently proves, and TV-to-movie outings 21 Jump Street and its sequel 22 Jump Street have less reliably attempted, the same can’t be said for the pretence. A few funny slapstick set-ups aside, Let’s Be Cops is a one-gag concept, over-edited and stretched further past its comic limits every time a fake badge is flashed and an authentic-looking police car blasts its sirens.
While retro music choices spanning the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way” and Ginuwine’s “Pony” raise a smile, the longer the film continues, the lazier its jokes and the more problematic the material becomes. The simplification of the police’s thrall over the general public that transforms the feature’s love interest – aspiring make-up artist and waitress at one of the victimised cafes, Josie (Nina Dobrev, The Vampire Diaries) – from indifferent to enamoured with Justin as soon as she thinks he is a cop take the jesting to an insulting extreme, as does an offensive sequence predicated upon Wayans’ and co-star Keegan-Michael Key’s (Key & Peele) slightest trace of visual resemblance.
On TV’s New Girl, co-stars Johnson and Wayans, Jr. have showcased their humorous skills as well as their shared camaraderie and charisma. Their likeable pairing is certainly to the film’s benefit, particularly given the thinness of the content, the lethargic direction, and the late shift from amusing to action territory. Let’s Be Cops allows them to riff and argue over a longer block of time, as their fans will no doubt appreciate; however although the feature enjoys their talents – trapped in bland archetypes of the bravado-fuelled and the too-cautious as they are – neither can dress up an average offering. Instead, the sketch comedy-honed efforts of Key frequently steals the silly show, with Rob Riggle (The Internship) as an earnest and helpful cop also effective.
Rating: 2 stars out of 5
Let’s Be Cops
Director: Luke Greenfield
USA, 2014, 104 mins
Release date: November 13
Distributor: Fox
Rated: MA
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